Capitol Rioter Shouts 'Trump Won' at Sentencing

Daniel Rodriguez got 12.5 years
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 22, 2023 12:30 AM CDT
Capitol Rioter Shouts 'Trump Won' at Sentencing
FILE - Rioters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. Daniel “D.J.” Rodriguez, a California man who drove a stun gun into a police officer's neck during one of the most violent clashes of the U.S. Capitol riot was sentenced on Wednesday to more than 12 years in prison.   (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

One of the men who shoved a stun gun into a Washington, DC, police officer's neck during the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol yelled, "Trump won!" as he was exiting the courtroom after being sentenced Wednesday. Daniel "DJ" Rodriguez, who traveled from his home state of California to the nation's capital with others from the Telegram group "PATRIOTS 45 MAGA Gang" who falsely believed former President Trump won re-election in the 2020 presidential election, was sentenced to 12 and a half years behind bars, NBC News reports. The 40-year-old had in February pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy, assault with a dangerous weapon, and obstruction of an official proceeding, CNN reports.

Rodriguez, who bragged to the Telegram group about having "tazzed the f--- out of the blue" after the riot, gave what NBC refers to as a "rambling" 20-minute speech before he was sentenced, in which he called himself an "American supremacist," complained of inequality in the US, and said that "life has always seemed unfair to me." The officer who was Tased, Michael Fanone, also spoke at the sentencing. "It’s been clear by the defendants' own behavior that there is no remorse, at least for the individuals in which I came in contact with on Jan. 6 who are criminally charged," he said. "These are Americans that engaged in seditious activity. I believe that they were traitors, and they should be sentenced accordingly." He also called for Trump himself to be indicted over his actions leading up to Jan. 6. (More Capitol riot stories.)

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